WINNING THE M.C.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 219, 4 June 1918, Page 4

WINNING THE M.C.

HOW LIEUTENANT HARRY MARSIIALL DID IT. In a letter to a friend in Wellington Lieutenant 11. Marshall gives some interesting tails of an affair in which he was engaged on March 1, "somewhere in France." It is a story of strenuous endeavour, in which he gives a modest but convincing account of what he himself did with a rifle —a German rifle, too. Summing up Iho "stunt," as he calls it, ho says: "So tho result, which slill puzzles me, was thai; the ono platoon of thirty men compelled tho enemy to evacuate half a mile of trenches. You know, they speak English, so I yelled out, when we were near them, 'Bring up another Lewis gun!' Of course, I did not hnvo another, but thought, it might help the bluff. Feel certain they thought a fairly etrong attack was on. Wc took two machine-guns, smashed three trench guns, took two prisoners, killed eleven, wounded twenty. Wo had one man slightly wounded. . . . When 1 returned hi reserve that night all hands were very decent about it. The O.C. asked me to dine, and said the Brigadier was delighted. 1 had instructions to lecommend some of my men lor dcoralion and' well they deserved it." Perhaps that was the "stunt" for which Lieutenant Marshall was awarded the Cross.

Lieutenant Marshall, who is a son of Captain J. T. Marshall, of Wellington, was for many years Customs clerk in (lie firm <)[' Messrs. E. W. -Mills and Co. Ho was president of the Karori Rifle Club, president of the New Zealand Rifle Clubs' Union, a member of the executivt* of the Dominion Rifle Association, a wellknown rifle shot (he represented New Zealand at Bisley), and was generally recognised as a man who has dono invaluable service for shooting in the .Dominion. When the war broke out he received a commission as major from Generat Godley as head of the Wellington Kiilo Clubs' Reserve Corps, many of the member:! of which have achieved distinction at the front. Lieutenant Marshall's wife is at present assistant-matron at Waltnn-on-Thamcs Ilospital in England. She went Home oil active service in tho eamo transnort as her husband.